The invention relates to a sensor element for measuring impurities or additives in fluids, or determining the concentration of impurities or additives in fluids.
Sensor elements for a sensor or for measuring devices for measuring impurities or additives in fluids, in particular also for determining the concentration of such impurities or additives in fluids or liquids, for example in liquid fuels or propellants, e.g. oil, gasoline, diesel fuel, etc. are known in the art (U.S. Pat. No. 7,191,505 B2). Such sensor elements generally consist of a housing with an outwardly closed and sealed housing interior with at least one inlet and at least one outlet for the fluid which is to be measured and which flows through the housing interior and further consist of at least one electrode made of an electrically conductive material located in the housing interior. Between the electrode and an electrically conductive inner surface of the housing in the form of a counter-electrode a measuring path is formed for an electrical measurement, for example a resistance measurement and/or a capacitance measurement of the fluid flowing through the measuring path. The electrode, which is for example cup-shaped, then leads with its open end out of the housing interior through an electrically insulated bushing, so that a measuring device or measuring circuitry can be connected to said electrode. It is also known in the art that the housing of the sensor element is tube-shaped on partial lengths.
The disadvantage of known sensor elements is, for example, that their housings are manufactured through complex machining processes and/or that they consist of a plurality of individual parts, which have to be connected with each other tightly to form the sealed housing, thus resulting in increased manufacturing expense, for example.
It is an object of the invention to present a sensor element which eliminates the above disadvantages.